On Tue, 23 Jan 2018 09:05:45 -0700, Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha
wrote:

NPR (that bastion of conservative extremism) was just talking this
morning about how all the biggest manufacturers of solar panels are
in China these days, because China has been subsidizing them (and
encouraging dumping in the international market) for a decade or
so. And how ****ed they re with the new tariff, which brings their
prices up to something more competitive to the less (but still)
subsidized US manufacturers.

It will raise the price of panels, of course. But panels are already
one of the less expensive parts of any PV system.

No. The traditional fossil fuels are petroleum and coal, both of
which are now being priced out of the energy generation market.

More by the low prices of natural gas than the high prices of
either, of course. There's a real glut of natural gas these days,
and it's not likely to end soon.

Coal will not recover. It's simply too dirty and too expensive to
clean. It was already being priced out even before cheap natural gas
showed up. Petroleum costs will depend upon supply, but most evidence
points to that diminishing. Meanwhile, solar and wind will certainly
continue to get cheaper.

Yeah, hold your breath on that. It will take a lifetime to build
enough infrastructure and generating capacity to replace gasoline
powered cars with eelectrics (which will required at least a 1/3
increase in total capacity in the US).

That's almost certainly a myth. Most of the infrastructure already
exists right in people's homes.

Battery technology is not dependent upon foreign materials,

Are there rare earth mines actually productive in the US now? China
is the biggest producer, and they've already manipulated the market
to protect their own interests.

Battery technology does not utilize much in the way of rare earths.

there is no military cost.

Today.

Why would there be if we're not dependent upon foreign sources for
materials?

And battery technology does not have
a large environmental impact.

Now you're into retard territory.

That's not an intelligent response. There is lots of information out
there about the environmental issues surrounding batteries. The lead
acid battery industry achieves near 100% recycling, and is viewed as a
model for how other battery lifecycles can be modeled. The toxins in
the batteries and used for manufacturing are usually not significant,
and are manageable. We don't see environmental releases from batteries
(and certainly not at the levels we see from burning fossil fuels).

Nor do the production of wind or
solar production equipment.

Wind, less so. Solar requires exotic materials, as do high tech
batteries, both of which have environmental implications for
manufacture, and disposal after they're worn out.

No, not really. The bulk of the materials are not in the least exotic
and the manufacturing processes are the same or similar to what we see
in a great many products today, where environmental impact is well
controlled.